Honcho

Honcho is a Beneteau 36s7. All sailors have their own criteria by which they measure the ideal boat for their needs. For me, Honcho is about as good as it gets. My particular set of criteria is a combination of performance, comfort, construction, aesthetics and cost. When I balanced out these factors it turned out that only a select few boats would match up. I could have easily designed and built a custom boat that would be a whole lot better in terms of performance, comfort, looks and construction, but it would have cost roughly four times the price of the Honcho. On the other hand, I know of a lot of boats that would have excelled in one area or another, but fell down in some other important way. I'm not saying that there aren't other boats out there that would do just as well as the Honcho, but I have to say that this boat fits right in the middle of the sweet spot of my concept of a good small cruising boat. It's big enough but not too big. It’s engineered and built, for the most part, strongly enough to sail anywhere I would care to go. It'll easily put away 120 miles a day, and that's fast enough (just barely). As for aesthetics, that's a subjective judgment, one man's dreamboat is another man's blowfish. Finally, it fits the budget.

36s7 Driving upwind in about 12 knots. Notice the 'patio' built into the transom. Honcho will get a transom extension